Chimpomatic

Wires On Fire

Wires On Fire

Buddyhead

Ever since the mid-80's - when those two school buses carrying the Punks and the Metalheads crashed on the way to the high school - LA seems to have cornered the market on a certain genre of music. You could describe it as punk influenced metal, maybe with a touch of West Hollywood sleaze. Sure the genre is long out of high school now, probably driving it's own muscle car around town - but the agenda is still the same.

Following in the steps of the likes of The Bronx and The Warlocks, Wires On Fire are a pretty incendiary bunch - and it's no surprise to find out they are on tough talking and generally entertaining website/label Buddyhead. Hard and heavy, this is punk sensibilities with a penchant for guitar solos. You know they're going to rock live, but for this debut they've just laid down a sold album with some promise.

C+ (2.5 stars in chimp terms). Has potential, but could try harder.

#Music
#CSF

24th Feb 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Dukes Of Hazzard

(dir. Jay Chandrasekhar)

Warner Bros

Notably mainly for it's ZZ Top sound-tracked car chase and Luke Duke's Zeppelin T-shirt, this mindless entertainment is watchable enough ...especially if you happen to be flying long haul. "Appalachian Americans if you please".

#Film
#CSF

23rd Feb 2007 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Lavender Diamond

The Cavalry Of Light

Rough Trade

This EP from Los Angeles based Lavender Diamond seems to be creating a frenzy at the moment, first with Matador snapping up the North American rights and then Rough Trade taking Europe. It's not hard to see why - with the band acting as a "a vehicle for the astonishing vocals and buoyant worldview of Becky Stark."

Stark's superb classical vocals give the record a timeless quality that is best compared to something out of NYC's Brill Building in the sixties, probably penned by Carole King. The crisp production and piano-led sound are familiar and engaging, but strangely unlike much of the music around at the moment.

You Broke My Heart (Listen here - Windows Media) is a tight, highly strung number - gently increasing the pressure as it builds up and up, with it's gentle sound hiding the heart-breaking undertone of it's message.

Ballad Please (Listen here - Windows Media) iis the most Carole King-esque of the tracks, with it's distinct, sad nostalgia. Lavender Diamond tread a careful line between the singer-songwriter side of seventies LA and the problem-solving of Andrew Lloyd Webber, but In Heaven There Is No Heat (Listen here - Windows Media) ilands things on the CSNY side of the fence.

Currently supporting the Decemberists on their European tour, the band will have a full length album out in May which I eagerly look forward to.

#Music
#CSF

12th Feb 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Ghost

In Stormy Nights

Ghost first came to my attention as the backing band for ex-Galaxie 500 maestros Damon & Naomi, on their timeless album "With Ghost". To this day it's an a permanent favourite, with the soft folk sounds creating a gentle, complex base for the soaring, beautiful vocals.

In Stormy Nights sees the band release their ninth album through Drag City, and Masaki Batoh leads his rotating band of followers though a varied, eclectic range of songs and styles, drawing from a diverse range of musical styles.

The opening sounds of Motherly Bluster were exactly what I was expecting, with Batoh's thick Japanese accent presiding over a textured layer of sounds and acoustic guitar. However, second track Hemicyclic Anthelion is a 28 minute marathon of experimentation that unfortunately drifts along without much focus or direction. Akin to hanging around in a late night Tokyo tube station, I rarely find myself in a situation or mood to listen to it. As a result it disrupts the flow of the album, which without it only clocks in at 5 songs / 30 minutes.

Things bang back into action with the military stomp of Water Door Yellow Gate, sounding like a Japanese Nick Cave poisoned poem. Gareki No Toshi segues on from this, with distorted shouts and sound effects sounding like a Fugazi rehearsal session (the opening of Birthday Pony is actually the track I'm thinking of - for you Fugazi heads).

Most comparable to This Mortal Coil, Ghost has much of the same eclectic feel, with strange successes (such as the rambling bagpipes on Caledonia) and unfortunate failings. Moody soundscapes and soundtracks are often misplaced, and seem at odds with each other - rather than sounding like a cohesive body of work by one artist. While the final track Grisaille brings hints of the captivating acid-folk charm that I heard on Damon & Naomi with Ghost, for the most part those moments are unfortunately often drowned out.

#Music
#CSF

10th Feb 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Ghost Club

Suicide Train

Enthusiastic? - maybe. Under produced and under developed? - definitely. In fact it was recorded over a single day.

This garage rock from New Zealand unfortunately offers nothing new, and with David Mitchell's grating voice often struggling to hold a tune, the music fades into derivative sound-a-like.

#Music
#CSF

10th Feb 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Desert Hearts

Hotsy Totsy Nagasaki

Gargleblast / No Dancing

It's always a delight to put on a new album by a band you've never heard of and get some instant satisfaction, and it's a surprising uncommon situation.

I can openly admit that I had never heard of Desert Hearts before, and certainly never heard their 2002 debut album - Let's Get Worse. Released through Rough Trade in 2002, that album got some good reviews from the likes of Mojo and Uncut, but never really broke through... instead settling for 'cult classic' status - apparently evident my the number of myspace users using it's track titles as their moniker. This is certainly not a band that you would associate with myspace however, and what is even more surprising is the news that the band is from Belfast. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, just that their sound is so American, with it's blend of Pavement/Fugazi/Misc American Indie.

Opener D Moon Pilot's version of a slow Fugazi shuffle quickly dispenses with the vocals to power up some extra hardware and get this party started. Sea Punk is pure Pavement with it's instrumental licks and arrangements, overlaid with Charlie Mooney's deceptively pleasant vocals ...but again with this track and the next vocals often play second fiddle to the guitars.

This three piece can unleash when necessary and they often do. While it's title might suggest one thing, the furious groove of Central Line suggests nothing of the sort.

Roisin Stewarts vocals add another element to their sound in power pop jam Ocean - beefed up by Mooney's back up vocals. Once again the guitars show they really know how to rock, and perhaps the Andy Miller production credit can offer some explanation. As well as showing some of the roots of the band's sound, his previous credits of Arab Strap and Mogwai do give the album some non-American reference points - particularly Mogwai's slow building rhythms and lines. Goodbye Everything's strong bass line builds slowly, with slight lyrics build around an instrumental esque jam that would site happily on a Tortoise or Mogwai album.

This is a surprising record, and one that will hopefully keep expanding as I spend more time with it.... hopefully cementing it's current place as one of this year's early favourites.

#Music
#CSF

5th Feb 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

The View

Hats Off To The Buskers

With Owen Morris (Oasis, The Verve) at the production controls The View have upped their game and produced an energetic album with plenty of hits that could give the Arctic Monkeys a chill.

#Music
#CSF

5th Feb 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Howling Bells

Howling Bells

Bella Union

This distinctly English sounding band (a la The Sundays) are surprisingly Australian - with a heavy dose of inspiration do doubt coming from the Throwing Muses school of early 90's, pre-nirvana indie. Their soulful Indie Blues (a term I'm coining now - TM) is immediately engaging, and with Kirsten Hersh and Tanya Donnely back in business, former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde's Bella Union have obviously decided to pre-empt a 4AD revival. Break out the maroon Doc Marten's - this is great stuff.

#Music
#CSF

5th Feb 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Soho Venue Bar, London

With their second album Some Loud Thunder about to hit the shelves, Brooklyn's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are in the UK for a promotional tour - starting with this low-key gig at TVFKARRB (The Venue Formerly Known As Raymond's Revue Bar). Currently called "Soho Revue Bar", the venue is in the legendary former strip club (poles still intact) at the bottom of Berwick St. It's a nice little place, with Goodfellas style table lamps and velvet booths - and the perfect place for a little warm-up gig like this.

The band showed up on stage a little late and seemed slightly nervous about things as they kicked of the show. Alec Ounsworth led his band through the proceedings, sticking mainly with the new album for a while - with "Love Song No 7" and "Underwater (You and Me)" sounding particularly good.

There were certainly some sound problems in the venue, with a partial power cut through one song. The band were certainly in no hurry however, meaning the momentum of the show was often lost a little between tracks - but when things picked up and the chatty crowd quietened down the band showed some of their magic. While some of the new songs seemed a little under developed and malnourished in a live setting there were plenty of highlights. "Satan Said Dance" has been in live rotation for a while now and it showed - fast, tight and furious guitars rolling along to a pounding beat. "Yankee Go Home" was beefed up from it's album version - with a Brian May-esque guitar solo added for good measure. Out of the context of the (possibly over-produced) album, the songs true strengths have more of a chance to shine through - and while there is still plenty of room for development, a handful of the new tracks were already standing up well next to old favourites like "In This Home On Ice" (described as a 'song about ice') and "Details of the War" - which was stretched out here like a long-lost Neil Young classic.

45 minutes later and the show is wrapped up, with the epic first album closer "Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood" proving to be the final track. A Wedding Present style guitar frenzy classic that showed plenty of what this band is capable... and will hopefully be delivering for many more years to come.

#Music
#Gig
#CSF

1st Feb 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Early Years

The Great Awakening

Beggars Banquet

With their debut LP only recently slipping from heavy rotation, The Early Years are already back in business. While their outstanding debut had it's fair share of 5 star classics - it did somehow have a hint that the best was yet to come with these guys. In between a lot of touring and shows (including a brief stint as the backing band to Can's Damo Suzuki), plus ramping up the debut album for release in the US, the band have still found time to record four completely new tracks for this EP.

Stomping first tune Say What I Want To plays on all of the debut albums strengths, pounding beats layer and build upon like a tidal wave. On Fire applies the same method, but with a minimal electronica slant. There's a slight Edge jangle to the guitars on those last few tracks - which give it a nice 80's indie sound, almost on a Stones Roses vibe.

As The Early Years start to meet their early promise, let's hope that things only get better and a second album builds even further in the same direction.... Viva ze Early Years!

#Music
#CSF

31st Jan 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Five Days

(dir. Otto Bathurst, Simon Curtis)

When a young Hertfordshire woman disappears while buying flowers, her two children also go missing - as the police and media machine spring into action.

Superior drama from the BBC and HBO. The series has the high-quality writing and acting that the BBC has recently been more than capable of producing, with the production value of an American show. This however, is a distinctly British story - with none of the (sometimes) psuedo-Americanization seen in State Within, Spooks or Torchwood.

This is a complex and well-thought out script, that unfolds the story over 5 days (one day per episode) - using the interesting device of picking non-consecutive days (1,3,28,33,79) that are pinnacle moments in the case. That allows the writers to fill in the blanks with detail and hindsight, analysing the way that a case like this effects those involved, the community, the media and the general public.

#TV
#CSF

24th Jan 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Yo La Tengo

Live Session EP

Matador Records

The on-form Yo La Tengo deliver a nice live set to complement their recent studio release. Great renditions of "Pass The Hatchet" and "The Weakest Part" are accompanied by Arthur Lee cover "Lucy Baines" and surf-rock jam "El Es Gay".

#Music
#CSF

22nd Jan 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet